FTSE Women Leaders Review publishes first report and asks Britain's largest private businesses to match public listed companies on gender parity expectations

As well as publishing updated data on the current position, the Report announced the following four new recommendations, setting expectations and goals towards gender-balanced boards and leadership teams by the end of 2025:

1. An increased voluntary target for FTSE 350 boards, and FTSE 350 leadership teams, from 33% to a minimum of 40% female representation.
2. FTSE 350 companies to have at least one woman in the Chair or Senior Independent Director board role, and/or one woman in the CEO or Finance Director role.
3. Key stakeholders to set best-practice guidance, or use alternative mechanisms, to encourage FTSE 350 boards that have not yet met the 2020 target of 33% female representation, to do so.
4. The scope of the Review be extended beyond FTSE 350 companies to include the largest 50 private companies in the UK by sales.

The recommendations build on the progress seen following the Hampton-Alexander Review and the Davies Review over the last decade. The latest data, published in the Report, showed that nearly 4 in 5 FTSE 350 companies have met, or exceeded, the 33% target for female representation on boards- in fact, nearly 40% of all FTSE 100 board roles are held by women. Investors and other stakeholders are encouraged to put pressure on the 72 FTSE 350 companies still falling short of the 33% target.

Representation of women in senior leadership positions has made slower progress than board representation, with it standing at 31.5% across the FTSE 350 in 2021 and only 25% when it comes to positions held on executive committees. The appointment rate continues to imply bias, with almost two out of every three FTSE 100 leadership roles that became available during 2021 still going to men; whilst the number of women in CEO roles remains below ten. The Chief Executive of the Review team identified this area as the 'final hill to climb'. Therefore, as well as building on the previous targets set by the Hampton-Alexander & Davies Reviews, the recommendations seek to shift the focus to the appointment rate of women leaders, and to expand the impact of the Review further across British businesses by bringing diversity expectations in the leadership of large private companies in line with public listed companies.

Given that the FTSE 100's gender parity on boards is now second only to France - out of 11 other countries considered, 8 of which have legislated mandatory quotas - Britain's voluntary, recommended approach appears to have been effective in making meaningful progress in this area.